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15 June 2012

The
current circumstances at the Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH) are devastating. The
MYH is a faith sensitive charity for young Muslims, offering a helpline,
webchat, email and signposting support service.
My wife, Akeela Ahmed, until this last Friday was Chief Executive there for
some years, and prior to that Head of Support Services.

Currently,
confidential communications – some of them involving me, Akeela and the police
– are on an anonymous blog identifying itself as a ‘whistleblowing’ group of 30
signatories who signed an initial “statement against the CEO and Helpline
manager ”, raised on 18th May.

Understandably,
there have been huge concerns about what is published on that blog, based on
communications between myself, Akeela and police. I completely understand why
so many people who have seen this material are upset, worried and downright
angry; and why so many people assume that what we have done is indefensible.
Indeed, if I was in your shoes, I’d probably feel much the same way.

But
there is a wider context here which has not been publicised. The first element
of this wider context is our communications with the police, only a part of
which the hackers have disclosed. On that front, I want to state from the
outset that we made a fundamental mistake in our approach, and it had an
entirely unintended consequence. I of all people should have known better, and
we tried, with some success, to neutralise those consequences. But we did what
we did in genuine fear, rather than any malice.

The
second element of this context is how this information got on the blog in the
first place – it did so as fallout from an escalating criminal campaign against
the charity and its management since last year. Without understanding how this
campaign affected our perceptions and emotions at the time, it is difficult to understand
what led us to make this mistake. What follows is not a justification of the
actions we took, but an explanation – the lesson of this narrative is, indeed,
that whatever illegitimate actions others took, ours should have been wiser.

Winner, Premio Napoli (Naples Prize created by decree of President of the Republic), 2003

"International security analyst and consultant who has spent much time looking at how environmental risks and terrorism threaten our eco-security and well-being." -- The Evening Standard's Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2015

"Yes, yes, I know he is one of Them. But they often know things that we don’t – particularly about what we are up to" -- Gore Vidal, The Observer

"Ahmed is that rare breed of journalist who finds stories everyone else either misses or chooses to overlook; he regularly joins up the dots in a global system of corporate pillage... a voice from the genuine left, and one too independent to control" -- Jonathan Cook, former Guardian columnist and foreign desk editor

"If you still need something to worry about, how about a grand conflagration of climate, financial, energy, food, and civil-liberties crises, which might destroy the world as we know it before the century is out?... Forceful and well sourced" -- Steven Poole, The Guardian

"Lucid and persuasive account of how our security mandarins talked themselves into believing we could make quiet, backroom deals with terrorists" -- Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

"Disturbing and clearly evidenced... Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed traces the unholy games played with Islamist terrorists by the US, and through acquiescence by the UK, flirting with them when it suited and then turning against them" -- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent

"Respected terror analyst Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed pulls apart the official narrative of 7/7, pointing out its gaps and contradictions... The authorities seem to be unable to answer many of the most basic questions about the 7/7 bombings ... it has taken a study by an academic outsider, Ahmed, to assess the extent of the bombers’ international terrorist connections." -- Editorial, Independent on Sunday

"One of the most illuminating voices in the British media" -- Rob Hopkins, founder, Transition Towns movement

"Nafeez Ahmed’s understanding of the post 9/11 power game, its lies, illusions and dangers, is no less than brilliant. Everyone should read this wise and powerfully illuminating book." -- John Pilger, Emmy and BAFTA award-winning journalist

"A very worthwhile read for policy-makers everywhere" -- Michael Meacher MP, UK Minister of State for the Environment (1997-2003)

About this blog

"posits that in every culture and society there are facts which tend to be suppressed collectively, because of the social and psychological costs of not doing so."

Deep political analysis digs

"beneath public formulations of policy issues to the bureaucratic, economic, and ultimately covert and criminal activities which underlie them."

(Peter Dale Scott, University of California, Berkeley)

On this blog, I engage in deep political analysis in the context of the Crisis of Civilisation – the convergence and escalation of environmental degradation; species extinctions; climate change; energy depletion; food crisis; water shortages; economic instability; inequality and poverty; religious and political extremism; moral confusion; mental illness; and finally, philosophical and epistemological vacuity.

As these crises systemically converge and accelerate, Civilization continues to respond largely with denial, potentially guaranteeing a business-as-usual trajectory toward worst case scenarios. The only viable alternative is to respond through direct confrontation with that which has been suppressed.